The Dual Effects of Postsecondary Academic Mismatch and College Selectivity on Postsecondary Degree Completion

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. Teachers, Postsecondary Education, and Career Choices

Abstract

Postsecondary academic mismatch occurs when students attend colleges where their classmates have substantially weaker or stronger academic backgrounds than their own. Academic mismatch takes two forms, “undermatch” (“big fish in small ponds”) and “overmatch” (“small fish in big ponds”). This paper uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to study the effects of postsecondary academic mismatch on college degree completion for college-goers in the United States. Quasi-experimental evidence suggests that there is an “overmatch penalty” associated with attending a college while overmatched. Opposing this force is a compensatory “selectivity dividend,” the size of which varies by the level of college selectivity attended. Consequently, whether overmatching reduces a student's probability of earning a degree depends on whether the selectivity dividend associated with the college attended is larger than the penalty incurred for overmatching. These findings are discussed in light of past research on academic mismatch. Their implications for public policy are considered.

Author

• Erik Westlund, University of Iowa